Commenting on the news that Alexandra Hall Hall, the Brexit counsellor at the British embassy in Washington, has resigned, Liberal Democrat Shadow Brexit Secretary Tom Brake said: "Alexandra Hall Hall's resignation proves what we already knew. The Tories are simply peddling fantasy when it comes to Brexit. "They are failing to come clean on the fact that it is going to be nigh-on impossible to negotiate a new trade relationship by December 2020 meaning that the threat of a no-deal Brexit remains very much on the table. "Only the Liberal Democrats will stop Brexit and make sure dedicated public servants ...
In my tribute to Bob Willis I wrote that he had been plucked from the obscurity of Surrey seconds to join a victorious Ashes tour under Ray Illingworth in 1970/1.Matthew Engel tells the story more fully: Willis made his debut for Surrey in 1969, but was still nowhere near a regular first-teamer by November 1970. Suddenly, aged 21 and expecting to spend the winter keeping goal for the Corinthian-Casuals football team, he was called out to Australia as a replacement. The England captain, Ray Illingworth, had never seen Willis play, but he said he wanted someone scary even if wayward, ...
Welcome to the latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts, taking a look at the key role for targeting in general elections, how the Lib Dem Brexit policy is going down with voters, some seats to watch out for on election night and a very large number of digressions. Show notes Reactions to Jo Swinson's interview with Andrew Neil. The BBC's fact check of that interview. Fiona Bruce's Question Time mistake. The Boris Johnson interview question about him lying, missing any of the obvious follow-ups. How to make a difference in the last week of the election. How ...
The third Liberal Democrat party political broadcast (PPB) for the 2019 general election is now out, featuring Luciana Berger, Sarah Wollaston and Chuka Umunna talking about why they've joined the Liberal Democrats: You can also watch the two previous PPBs: How Brexit has is putting at risk the jobs, businesses and health of people across the country 'We're at our best together' - Jo Swinson If you sign up for my blog posts digest you'll get a handy one-a-day email with links to all the latest posts. You can also sign up for a range of other lists, including Liberal ...
Travelling to Shropshire by road, if you leave the M54 at one junction you join a road that dips sharply so that the hills rose above you. Just as you are trying to remember some quotations from Housman, you round a bend and see the cooling towers of Ironbridge power station. Not any more you don't: they were demolished today. As a 20th-century boy, I still have a regard for industry on the heroic scale. I also admire the way red pigment was added to the concrete so the towers matched the local soil
The Liberal Democrats have today announced that "it's time to shift the goalposts on safe standing", by introducing safe-standing in top-flight football, offering more choice, a better atmosphere, and cheaper tickets for fans. Under the party's proposals, all Premier League and Championship sides could install rail seating in parts of their ground and permit spectators to stand for the entirety of the match in those areas. Safe standing operates successfully across Europe. Unlike traditional football terraces, each row is separated by a rail to prevent crowd surges and spectators are given a specific place to stand. The Sports Grounds Safety ...
Responding to Conservative claims that it would be "unfair" to allow EU citizens to vote in a People's Vote, Liberal Democrat Shadow Brexit Secretary, Tom Brake said: "The Conservatives want to deny EU citizens yet another right: the right to decide their future in the UK. They have been perfectly happy to use EU citizens' rights as a political football for years yet refuse to give them a say in a potential People's Vote. It's hardly surprising from the party responsible for the Windrush scandal."Meanwhile, Labour are hypocritically pandering to EU citizens, telling them they would support their right to ...
[IMG: Street column on The Undercliffe, Sandgate] Kent Highways have in their glory and wisdom installed a lovely new street light in The Undercliffe, Sandgate, but for their own reasons have installed it stepped out into the road. A couple of local residents have raised with me that as that section of road is frequently used for parking, when cars park directly opposite it, it's then really tight for cars to get down the road between the parked vehicle and the lamp post. I've asked Folkestone and Hythe Parking Services to look at it. Assuming we can't get the column ...
March 2004 began with a week of travel, to Paris, Washington DC and New York. Riots broke out in Kosovo. We published a report on Serbia. I had to cancel a trip to Oslo (still have never yet been to Norway), but I also visited Budapest, and finished the month with a work conference in Dublin and a day in Belfast, where I met (separately) with Peter Robinson and Denis Donaldson. At home, we parted company with our au pair (a grumpy Belgian). One news item which I knew was important, but had no idea just how important it would ...
It's not often that Labour can surprise me any more in Liverpool but I was nearly taken by surprise at a meeting last night. I turned up at a hustings meeting and, as always, tried to be polite to my ... Continue reading →
Just in from Shropshire Council. The carriageway surfacing has been completed this afternoon (Friday) and after allowing for the curing of the deep excavations to take place the road will be reopened under two way signals prior to peak time traffic flow tomorrow morning (Saturday). On Sunday works will take place to replace the anti-skid surfacing under traffic lights and once this is completed the traffic management will be completely cleared Sunday afternoon.
Here at Lib Dem Voice we receive some intriguing emails, especially those from people wanting to place a post to help their search engine status. Here are a couple we have received this week. This is xxx, a writer and a big fan of your blog/website content https://www.libdemvoice.org . I'm reaching out to you because I wish to write an amazing blog post for your readers. The articles ideas I had: Pest Control Services Residential Pest Control Services Commercial Pest Control Services Termite Control, Termite Treatment Ant Control & Extermination I would appreciate if you could allow me to write ...
Shropshire Council has issued an update on the closure of the A4117. Officers say they are concentrating on trying sort out the traffic jam on Squirrel Lane. The roadworks should end by midday tomorrow. Dear Councillors, As an update - the feedback from site is that the repair is progressing well and, barring any further unforeseen circumstances, works are still scheduled to complete and the A4117 re-opened by midmorning tomorrow. The focus today has been attempting to further mitigate the issues with traffic using Squirrel Lane as a cut-through. We have requested that STW's traffic management operatives review the existing ...
The Prime Minister may claim that the Tory Party have zero tolerance for candidates and members who exhibit Islamophobic tendencies, but somebody appears to have failed to pass that message onto his ministers. As the Guardian reports, at least four ministers have gone on election campaigning trips to endorse Tory candidates facing allegations of Islamophobia since the claims against them came to light: In constituency visits that appear to contradict Boris Johnson's repeated claim that the party has a "zero tolerance" stance on the issue, Sajid Javid, Matt Hancock, Andrea Leadsom and Thérèse Coffey have thrown their weight behind the ...
I've covered before the popularity of the idea of revoking Article 50 with Remain voters, both evidenced by the 6 million plus petition earlier this year and more recent polling evidence. But what about more recently? It's rapidly becoming conventional wisdom that the policy is unpopular and damaging the Liberal Democrats in the general election. But although conventional wisdom is indeed sometimes wise, it also is rather prone to getting very detached from the evidence, as the first Corbyn-Johnson TV debate showed. So let's look at the recent (24-26 November) polling by YouGov: Imagine that after the General Election, the ...
The recent NATO summit in the UK filled the headlines for a few days. What was the summit really all about ? Arguments about low defence spending amongst some members, about perceived military weakness relative to Russia in the Baltic States, spilled out. There was even an apparent threat from Turkey to delay progress on the Baltic States issue until the rest of NATO accepted that Kurdish defence forces in Syria are 'terrorists'. After 70 years of NATO, the irreconcilable discord dominated. The underlying problem is that members do not agree any more on what exactly NATO is for. What ...
Thu, 12:56: Walking the wall: my Brexit hike in northern England https://t.co/bae96aIndl The Brexit report from the frontier of the Roman Empire. Thu, 16:05: Is Change Afoot in Azerbaijan? https://t.co/wEqWr7CFIn I had missed this interesting piece from @Tom_deWaal in Octo... https://t.co/YBlPFOBy5u Thu, 17:11: Income inequality map shows where Americans have most upward mobility https://t.co/gCC6PcmIi4 Very interesting. Wou... https://t.co/TzuBlvcny3 Thu, 18:35: The Invisible Man, by H.G. Wells https://t.co/U73GCK4mCz Thu, 20:42: RT @BBCPolitics: "It is not too late. We have an interview prepared. Oven-ready, as Mr Johnson likes to say" Andrew Neil issues a challeng... Thu, 20:48: Recalling the Raincoats and Grease ...
I [IMG: Beach Huts on Folkestone sea front] 'm delighted to report that the Folkestone Lower Leas Park Beach Chalets Scheme (which was to see 58 huts removed, 16 retained and renovated and 120 wooden huts installed) has been substantially amended more than DOUBLING the number of existing chalets to be retained. Following interventions and protests on the orginal scheme by local residents, heritage groups and Councillors (including my moving amendments to the scheme at the most recent full Council meeting) Folkestone and Hythe District Council (and the Trustees of the Folkestone Parks and Please Grounds, who are subtly different) ...
The recent news that the Daily Mail has bought the i newspaper for £49.6m has caused alarm and dismay to many. Is this the latest example of the extreme right tightening their grip on Britain's print media, 80% of which they already own? It was, after all, the Mail's long running, vengeful and ferocious campaign against the EU, under Paul Dacre's editorship, that set the scene for Brexit. It may be that Dacre finally overstepped the mark with his "enemies of the people" attack on our top judges, or it may be that his particular brand of burning anger was ...
One of the things you must do to keep your sanity during this general election campaign, which thankfully has less than a week less to run, is amuse yourself with the paradoxes that exist at the heart of the Tory campaign and indeed, Boris Johnson himself, ones that have hardly been explored during the last six weeks. I think these three are the most interesting. Johnson's ability to seem like the most reasonable actor capable of reaching Downing Street after December 12th is based largely on the fact that most people don't believe he's being honest a lot of the ...
Unlike Jo Swinson, Boris Johnson is continuing to dodge an interview with Andrew Neil. But we do now know what Andrew Neil would have asked: "It is not too late. We have an interview prepared. Oven-ready, as Mr Johnson likes to say" Andrew Neil issues a challenge for Boris Johnson to commit to an interview with him, to face questions on why people have "deemed him to be untrustworthy"https://t.co/daHLxEYn4r pic.twitter.com/oQ21uDdtJe — BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) December 5, 2019 At the time of typing, this video clip already has over four million views. At this rate, although Boris Johnson may continue to ...
This statement has been issued by Shropshire Council. Yesterday, the 722 ran as normal. That might change. There is extensive rat running on Squirrel Lane. Signs are in place to discourage this but they are being ignored. There have been several near misses. Trucks have become stuck. The edges of the road are being churned up. One resident was so fed up she lay in the road to protest! Dear Councillors, I'd like to update on the current situation in regard to the work being carried out by Severn Trent Water at Rocks Green - and also to give some ...
The West Port Christmas Lights are switched on tonight - at 5pm - all welcome - don't miss it! Music and fun from around 4.45pm! Meet at the Christmas Tree in front of Molly Malone's (previously The Globe).
The Liberal Democrats have announced today that they will move more than 9,000 members of staff out of the Home Office, under the party's plans to strip the discredited department of responsibility for immigration and asylum. Highlighting the Windrush Scandal, the Hostile Environment and the large number of rulings against the Home Office in courts and tribunals, the Liberal Democrats argue that the department is "not fit for purpose" and warned "the Conservatives' chaotic approach to Brexit risks a repeat of the Windrush scandal for EU citizens."The party's manifesto commits to stripping the Home Office of responsibility for policy making ...
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